From Arizona, where state Sen. Wendy Rogers spoke approvingly of hanging political enemies at a white nationalist rally, to Oklahoma, where the GOP chair and candidate for Congress talked about putting Anthony Fauci in front of a firing squad, Republicans are frequently musing about committing violence against their political opponents.
Source: The emerging Paramilitary Wing of the Republican Party
My thought for the day It is far better to form your own independent opinions relative to your life experience and reason than to allow yourself to be blindly led by others. ( John Lord )
Source: About “Boofhead” – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Refuting critics who say the Coalition is ideologically opposed to solar energy, Shadow Treasurer and former Energy Minister Angus Taylor has announced a new energy policy that would take advantage of the sun’s rich resources by opening it up to his friend’s mining companies.
Source: Energy Crisis: Coalition outlines proposal to mine the sun | The Shovel
Fires. Floods. Pandemic. War. And now an energy crisis. These are wearing times for households and businesses – but there is a solution
Electricity poses a particular problem because businesses and households do not know what they are going to be charged until after they have used it.
So, what can we do?
Source: Zoe Daniel: How to fix the energy crisis the Coalition’s gave us
Does anyone understand the national electricity market?
Source: Energy markets give everyone a headache – Michael West
Patel, for her part, was never exercised by the more sordid details of the case. Her approach to matters of justice is one of premature adjudication: the guilty are everywhere, and only multiply. When it came to WikiLeaks, such fine points of law and fact as a shaky indictment based on fabricated evidence, meditations on assassination, and a genuine, diagnosed risk of self-harm, were piffling distractions. The US Department of Justice would not be denied.
The United States remains a country of tenacious faith, including in the sanctity of guns.
The Patriot Front’s fascist rhetoric could make it a natural successor to the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers as Donald Trump’s favorite white nationalist group.
Source: In the Shadow of Jan. 6 Hearings, Right-Wing Militancy Is on the Rise
” No no no, you don’t understand Mike, you can do this,” he reportedly insisted, adding, “I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.”
Donald Trump said Friday that he would look “very, very seriously” at pardoning his supporters who were charged in last year’s violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol if he’s elected president again.
He said Russia’s economy remained strong despite Western sanctions
The Russian President also vehemently defended his country’s actions in Ukraine
The message for the new government is clear: keep giving big business what it wants – weak merger and competition laws, plus prohibitions on union activity – and the economy will continue performing poorly. Profits will keep growing while household income shrinks.
Source: Why Albanese needs to protect capitalism from the capitalists
Woke Capitalism isn’t new. Capitalists will turn to anything that supports or even distracts from their economic activities. Anything doesn’t attempt to aggressively change them. In fact any cultural change that promotes and doesn’t directly harm is seen by definition as progressive even by capitalists. It’s why they even see social welfare as a business opportunity. They in fact need to allow for cultural change and use it to maintain or increase their bottom lines. As long as they can prevent unionization they are int the box seat.
The good news is that progressive political causes are so popular that they are worth cashing in on — times are changing for the better. But there is a critical caveat. When corporations get political, it is almost exclusively on social and environmental issues rather than economic ones.
Increasing the minimum wage, combatting aggressive corporate tax minimization, promoting income and wealth redistribution, reversing excessive executive remuneration, sharing the spoils of economic growth and curbing economic inequality are entirely off-limits to the woke corporation’s activist agenda.
Right-wing commentary over woke capitalism is distracting attention from addressing economic inequality.
Sometimes I wonder why something that I see as a simple idea isn’t being suggested by people in public office. You know, simple things like – given the shortage of workers in some industries – why don’t we double the amount that the unemployed could earn before they lose any of their benefits? It would…
It’s starting to sound all socialist and full of red tape and we all know that privatisation is the way to go because, hey, hasn’t privatisation worked a treat with all the areas where governments have privatised.
I’m trying to think of a specific example here, but I guess my trouble must be that there are so many of them,
Ah, Qantas. Once it used to be government-owned but now that it’s in private hands, they find your lost luggage much more efficiently because they’ve had so much experience at it…
All right, the Commonwealth Bank… Um, public transport?
Anyway, we know that it much be better because why else would governments keep selling off public assets to their mates?
Source: Lacking Energy? It’s Labor’s Fault Apparently… – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Is it hypocritical to write an op-ed about my hatred of op-eds and how they are an outdated medium? Probably, but fuck it, hear me out, and I’ll explain why “I hate free speech in the marketplace of ideas.”
The new leader of the wedge and slogan party said the crisis has occurred because the power industry has been “spooked” by the ALP’s plans to promote renewables “too quickly”.
The new leader of the climate change denying party suggested nuclear power was the answer. It is the most expensive form of power. It would take 15 years to build. It is not renewable and it produces toxic waste.
It is obvious where the views of the alternate prime minister and his deputy come from and it isn’t any of the energy regulators, suppliers or academics in the field.
Oh no. If you want to know how to run the country, turn to Sky non-News.
Strange how ex AG Cash can claim credit for a stat without being specific about what the LNP decisions were that caused low unemployment. The pandemic not the LNP was to blame. The clamp of students, skilled, workers and Immigration was a decision forced on the LNP by Covid and not a proactive decision to reduce unemployment. It was a decision forced on Morrison after the Ruby Princess debacle. We certainly weren’t party to their wisdom at the time and it was an act instep globally.
What isn’t claimed as credit however is the degree of underemployment hidden in the figures. Something the Liberals stay silent on. They cut penalty wages and watched the income gap widen. They even fought against the reason for the 5.2% minimum wage rise necessary to diminish the actual wage loss the poorest workers suffered under their management. The real hidden unemployment figure that has been suggested is closer to 10% and the quality of employment is suffering.
A pair of high-ranking former Coalition ministers — including WA Senator Michaelia Cash — have claimed credit for Australia’s record low unemployment rate while attempting to dodge responsibility for the energy crisis engulfing the east coast.
Ms Cash, the Shadow Employment and Workplace Relations Minster, and Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor said the nation’s 3.9 per cent jobless rate in May, confirmed by the ABS on Thursday, was evidence the economy inherited by recently elected Prime Minster Anthony Albanese was “in good shape”.
“The only reason you have an unemployment rate that has remained steady today at 3.9 per cent with the creation of 60,000 jobs… is because of the decisions that the former Coalition government took when they were in office,” Ms Cash said.
You have to laugh Russia first hails Murdoch’s Fox News as the Republic’s propaganda heroes but then condemns it’s doppelgangers Sky News and Newscorp Aus as its enemies. It welcomes Tucker Carlson, Ingraham etal, but bans Lachlan Murdoch, Andrew Bolt along with, the ABC’s, Ita Buttrose and Patricia Karvelas.
Bet you Andrew Bolt is feasting on his new left-wing, anti-fascist almost ANTIFA status. He’s been declared a journalist something he’s always said he wasn’t but now seems he is. It’s a celebrity boost. Is he ringing the Murdoch’s assuring them Tucker and Fox No News are still his role models down under? We do live in a circus of fools don’t we? The Russians are watching the ABC, Newscorp, and a random mix of others and are sanctioning them simply because they are there without any sense of logic. Bolt isn;t critical of Fox News or the Murdochs but is named simply because he’s there sold as a Journalist which he’s not and hasn’t been since Christ played ruck for Jerusalem.
Russia’s foreign ministry has announced it is sanctioning an additional 121 Australian citizens, including journalists and defence officials.
Russia’s foreign ministry has announced it is sanctioning an additional 121 Australian citizens in response to what it calls a “Russophobic agenda”.
ABC’s chair Ita Buttrose is on the list along with journalists from her station and those working for The Age,The Sydney Morning Herald and Sky News.
Defence chief Angus Campbell is also on the blacklist, as is News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt.
Russia announced a similar move against dozens of British journalists on Tuesday.
Source: Russia sanctions more Australians including ABC, Nine journalists
Is the US heading for a recession? Many signs point in that direction. New home construction slowed in April. Mortgage demand continues to decline. Some of the country’s largest and most influential retailers are reporting disappointing sales and profits. The stock market is in bear territory. Futures markets are signaling trouble ahead.
Source: Is the US heading for a recession? Here’s what you need to know | Robert Reich | The Guardian
Washington: Donald Trump put his own vice president’s life at risk by embracing an elaborate plot to overturn the 2020 election, despite knowing the plan was unlawful, a Congressional hearing on the US Capitol attack has been told.
Among the sanctioned individuals are journalists from ABC News, Sydney Morning Herald and Sky News, as well as various defence officials.
Governments usually change after a recession, not before one, so the job is a nice one – to manage the recovery. But this time is different.
So the number one political imperative in Anthony Albanese’s first term is fast becoming the need to make sure he is not blamed in three years’ time for the various crises he has been bequeathed.
He will especially need to find a Teflon recession coat. Tuesday’s minimum wage decision, in line with his own submission, won’t help.
Economic prospects are now changing rapidly as the Reserve Bank belatedly engineers a slowdown to deal with inflation. It will be touch and go whether there’s a recession.
Source: Alan Kohler: In case of recession, Albanese must don a Teflon overcoat
On the matter of trust, in March 2022 Roy Morgan published the results on polling undertaken that placed Angus Taylor as the 7th least trusted politician in Australia, placing behind Dominic Perrottet (6th), Craig Kelly (5th), Pauline Hanson (4th), Barnaby Joyce (3rd), Peter Dutton (2nd) and Scott Morrison (1st).
He has struggled with public perceptions that he has put his own, and his family’s, interests before the public interest. We all know that Morrison has damaged the Liberal brand, possibly irrevocably. We know that Peter Dutton had a limited field from which to choose when allocating shadow portfolios.
That does not make Angus Taylor a hopeless choice, but it illustrates the lack of front bench talent, and the question to ask is, is Angus Taylor up to the task? Did he lack the ability to do his last job properly, or was he running dead, to sabotage the transition to renewables? That is the question we must ask ourselves.
As to the Coalition attempting to put together an alternative government, I would question whether Peter Dutton as alternative prime minister, and Angus Taylor as the alternative treasurer, really cuts it. I wouldn’t vote for them in a fit.
Source: Was Angus Taylor running dead, or was he not so bright? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Backing the wage rise shows Labor is on the side of workers at a time when many are doing it tough
We aren’t talking big business here but small working-class businesses. It’s always the case that the lobbyists for the top end of town throw cats among the pigeons in order to have Australia’s poor or lower 40% appear to be fighting among themselves so the media have something to amplify. Business has a united front, workers don’t given the LNP has reduced the Unions to a shadow of what they once were this century.
There is no talk of dropping the stage 3 tax cuts for the wealthy is there? Only a rise of wages, less than a packet of cigarettes, is what will send “Australia’s Businesses Broke”. A dollar an hour is the tipping point, a cup of coffee a day. Tony Abbott sent the whole fucking Car industry and allied services to the wall and got less of a response from the media. A whole sector of industry simply disappeared. The LNP gave QANTAS a bailout of billions to “keep its workers” and now we see it didn’t. Where did the money go?
Businesses could be “sent to the brink” of collapse by the size of the increase to the minimum wage, according to industry groups.
Source: Businesses warn of closures over wage rise – Michael West
Morrison with the help of Peter Dutton has seen us drop 9 places on the Peace Index from Very High to High. They bragged about our AAA credit rating but stay silent on our Peace and Corruption ratings. Should we be surprised at all surprised the nation threw them out?
Australia’s combative relationship with China and plans to purchase nuclear submarines have helped push it nine spots down the Global Peace Index, an annual assessment of nations’ pacifist records.
Source: Global Peace Index: Australia drops to 27th aided by China relationship woes
Australia did lead the world in something, cruelty. The cruelty continues for politic’s sake alone not for humanities. It indelibly stained our reputation as a multicultural-friendly nation and endangered the planet in a much harsher way than the pandemic. Abbott and the LNP rode to power on its vicious wave.
Tony Abbott won a federal election after campaigning on a platform of “turning back the boats”, another policy that is now embraced by both major parties.
Source: Australia’s descent into cruelty inspires other nations
The mine employs 2000 people, just under 10 per cent of the state’s coal mining workforce. The mine has been digging up coal since 2002 and can produce 20 million tonnes of thermal coal per year.
Source: BHP announces NSW’s largest coal mine to close by 2030
The Sydney Morning Herald’s (SMH’s) treatment of Rebel Wilson is a shocking and grimy reminder of how far the establishment media has fallen in recent years.
Source: Trashing of Rebel Wilson’s rights exposes media’s decency decline
Over the weekend Indian authorities bulldozed several homes belonging to Muslims in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh (UP). The homeowners were alleged to have taken part in organised protests on Friday in response to inflammatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) made by the now ousted spokesperson for the country’s ruling-Hindu hardline BJP party. It is the latest provocation against India’s sizeable Muslim population, following a high-court decision in March in the southern Karnataka state to ban women wearing the hijab in schools and colleges.
Source: In Demolishing Muslim protestors’ homes, India is taking a Leaf from of Israel’s Book
He may have got into power but he has sure as hell been a virus on the UK.
The European Union sued Britain on Wednesday over its move to rewrite the trade rules agreed to when the country left the EU two years ago, ratcheting up tensions between the major economic partners. Earlier this week, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government proposed legislation that would remove customs checks on some goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K. Those checks were imposed as part of a hard-fought compromise when Britain left the EU and its borderless free-trade zone — but have caused both economic and political problems in Northern Ireland, where some say they undermine the region’s place in the United Kingdom. The EU has decried Britain’s effort to rip up part of the deal.
Source: EU sues UK over move to rewrite post-Brexit trade rules
China sees Russia and Putin as a proxy satellite rather than a power unto itself and Putin is obliging them because without China’s silent support he couldn’t continue.
China has refused to criticise Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or even to refer to it in such terms while accusing NATO of provoking Russia into attacking.
My thought for the day Often life is an experience of random unidentifiable patterns and indiscriminate consequences that don’t always have order nor require explanation. The more we relate to others, the more we get to know ourselves. ( John Lord )
There are three things that Labor should reconsider.
1 they should increase income support payments.
2 they should scrap the stage 3 tax cuts. With inflation on the rise, we certainly don’t need to give rich people more money.
They should revisit the taxation reform Tax concessions on property investment have fuelled the housing crisis – start there.
3 Labor should do a complete review of defense spending. We are wasting hundreds of billions of dollars on last century’s weapons of war. Cyber security, robotics, and autonomous systems, communications, international regulatory bodies, foreign aid, trade, and diplomacy will be far more important than accumulating manned tanks and submarines.
Governments,, have to be flexible enough to respond to changing circumstances.
Source: Three things Labor should reconsider – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Morrison and Frydenberg were electioneering and telling us we have recovered and are now the best nation on the planet. We’re not! We don’t manufacture anymore. Not even our own cars since Abbott closed the industry down. Morrison wants us to be a top 10 “arms” manufacturer and the world’s biggest fossil fuel exporter. Mining took us up those 3 notches to 19th. All of which is at a cost that spells the death of the planet and the environment. Maybe Australia needs to lift its game and become less competitive in terms of old standards and find new ones to judge itself on.
We are a resource-rich nation like no other of sun, wind, and oceans and have the potential to be less destructive of our flora fauna land, and the planet on which we rely. We need to become a 23rd-century Indigenous nation.
Australia’s strong trade performance and pandemic recovery has elevated the nation’s international competitiveness by three spots to 19th in a global survey of 63 countries.
This came after Australia fell to its lowest ranking in 25 years in 2021, the Institute for Management Development World Competitiveness Yearbook showed on Tuesday.
However, the Committee for Economic Development of Australia think tank has warned Australia’s future competitiveness is not assured without lifting its game in a number of areas.
This includes technology, energy, skills and training, entrepreneurship, tax and productivity.
Australia’s worst ranking was in the entrepreneurship category, standing at 61 out of the 63 countries, while workplace productivity tumbled from 20 to 41.
Source: Australia must lift game to be competitive – Michael West
Recession is likely. Share markets, bonds, property, crypto; it’s all falling, just as the cost of living is soaring and central banks around the world are hoisting rates to crush demand and curtail rising prices. Michael West checks out the outlook.
It’s the MINIMUM wage bar that is being raised not the wages of ALL workers. After all Stage 3 tax cuts are due and if there was any justice that should be dropped. Politicians will benefit from that cut along with the 2.75% increase just handed them. That could well be a kicker of more than a total of 5.2%. It makes them our employees coupled with allowances among the highest paid on the planet for managing a paltry 25M of us. We don’t get a say in what we pay them.
So why on earth is there screaming when the lowest-paid workers have been found to be constantly ripped off and the politicians regularly caught with their heads in the trough. Minimum wage workers are doing more than one job to just survive in a world where the cost of living is going up because the previous government left the economy to the “efficiency” of the “free market” to exploit but not share the profits of real and increased productive labor. Inflation sets fire to the poor not the rich and the media amplify the noise.
Australia’s lowest-paid workers will receive a $40-a-week pay raise from July 1 after the industrial umpire raised the national minimum wage by 5.2 per cent, the highest rise since 2006, in a decision praised by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
The Remuneration Tribunal has awarded Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and all MPs their largest pay rise in the last decade. From July 1, they will enjoy a 2.75 per cent pay rise, meaning Albanese’s salary will rise to more than $564,000 and MPs will earn $217,060 plus their allowances.
Australia’s koalas may be doomed unless the new Labor Government implements strong policies to save them, writes Sue Arnold.
Source: Labor needs to lift its game to ensure koala survival
none of us can expect any government to change the world overnight. Whitlam and Rudd both tried that, and it didn’t end well. Albanese has a history of building consensus and getting results, so rather than scream from the rooftops that your particular policy or action isn’t done inside the next 100 days, calm down and wait. Albanese isn’t the new Messiah and he can’t please everyone. But if he can demonstrate major political parties and good governance don’t have to be mutually exclusive, a lot more people will go into the polling booth in three years’ time without the virtual pegs on their nose.
Source: A pox on both your houses – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Compo claim Australia’s highly-regulated markets have created infinite opportunities for manipulation and even the government-owned Snowy Hydro has been accused of gaming the system. Power companies say their hands have been forced by perverse incentives. On Tuesday, the nation’s top energy regulator wrote to power generators to remind them of their legal obligations and to suggest they may have engineered recent shortfalls in order to access the compensation payments that companies receive under emergency shortfalls when the government can force them into business.
Source: Power companies accused of engineering crisis for profit
Western support is critical to the Ukrainian effort to defend its territory, and for its counter-offensives to regain those parts of the country seized by the Russian military. And sustaining this support means that Ukraine, its president, its citizen information warriors and its diplomatic corps will need to continue their efforts to engage the politicians and populations of the United States, Europe and beyond.
Source: Russia-Ukraine war: Ukraine must maintain Western attention to win this war
Sky After Dark’s horse in the race has never look like a genuine thoroughbred.Nevertheless, The Murdoch’s are painting him up to be their Fine Cotton but we all know his track record and that he’s a fake.
Morrison is already playing the salesman and shifting blame away from himself in Trump-like fashion never admitting his loss was his own dead weight. He flopped like the Edsel did in the 50s in 2022. But is the Dutton better or worse than the Scomo? Morrison has after all the Pentecostalists behind him who are now fully immersed in politics since Howard enticed them, and their money to the Party and unleashed the culture wars on Australia. Dutton has only the Monkey Pod room with Hastie and Credlin seeing the light of opportunity while Dutton looks for the numbers that really aren’t there.
But Dutton will have to get used to the fact the new government – not the Coalition – now has the allure and prestige of power. There’s only so much tub-thumping he can do without looking isolated and pitiable.
Source: It’s been called the worst job in politics. Can Peter Dutton buck the trend?
The cost of living is through the roof, as gas prices make it hard for Australians to keep warm this winter. Labor needs to stand firm against foreign interests and reserve domestic supply. Dave Donovan looks at how we got to this cold, dark place.
Source: You might be warm and cookin’ with gas… if only it wasn’t 95.7% foreign owned!
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